>But suppose I was going into the army as an infantry officer, what would life be like?
As an infantry officer your “life†cannot be easily summed up in a few words or paragraphs. each officer’s career is different and many diverge from the ‘predicted’ path because of a variety of employment opportunities, limitations, specialties or other factors.
To start with you would receive basic officer training (drill, military law, leadership theory and practical instruction, introductory weapons training, etc.) much of it similar to that given soldiers in their basic training, though with the leadership components and higher academic expectations. Following basic training you would receive successive Infantry Phase courses to train you in the roles, responsibilities and skills expected of an infantry section commander, a dismounted infantry platoon commander, and as a mechanized infantry platoon commander.
These courses may be scheduled on successive summers between years of university or, rarely these days, run successively if the number of candidates and the Army’s requirements dictate it to be efficient.
Once you have completed training (and by this time you will have a degree, either through the military or by your own hand if you do it before enrolling) you will be posted to a regiment and battalion to take command of a rifle platoon. Your first regimental tour may last 3-5 years, during which you will lead your platoon and may then be moved to another job within the battalion (such as the Assistant Adjutant, Transport Officer or a support platoon commander or second-in-command job). You may during this time be selected to attend various training courses: examples include Advanced Recce Course, Advanced Anti-Armour Course, Unit Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence officer’s Course, etc. Not every young officer can expect to receive any of these qualifications.
Some of the things you may expect to do as a platoon commander range from conducting physical training, running firing ranges, and commanding your platoon on peacekeeping operations to counselling soldiers on personal financial matters, assisting them through the disciplinary process when they are charged under the Code of Service Discipline to running training courses conducted by the unit for soldiers.
Following your first battalion tour, by which time you should have made the promotion to Captain, you will be posted out to Extra-Regimental Employment (ERE). ERE jobs can include base or headquarters staffs, instructional duties, Regular Force cadre with a Reserve unit, or any number of other positions about the country. This employment can last another 3-5 years. During this period you can expect to be sent on the Army Operations Course, a 17 week course (7 weeks Distributed Learning via the internet and 10 weeks in residence in Kingston) to learn operational staff duties to prepare you for further employment in headquarters and unit staffs and to prepare you for further command appointments.
Many officers return to regimental duty after their first ERE. You would likely return to the battalion into a company second-in-command position, responsible for the administration of a rifle company. This posting may also see movement within the battalion to other captain’s positions.
After this second regimental tour you would probably have a pretty good idea of your future opportunities, whether you are on track for promotions and command appointments (Company, Battalion ….) or if you may be transferred to another ERE as a captain. Much depends on the assessments of your performance and potential throughout your career to that point.
I have known equally capable officers that have spent as little as 5 years and as many as 15 years on regimental duty out of 20. Not every infantry officer follows the same career path.
>If you have a university degree will it have an impact on your position(like whether the CF is gonna place you in artillery/medical...etc)?
All officers being enrolled will be required to hold or earn university degrees. The CF may send you to the Royal Military College, or finance your attendance at a civilian university. When you are ready (early in your senior year of high school), go talk to the recruiters to see what options are being offered for the following year.
>Could I have a parallel civilian career with my military career?
Not as a Regular Force officer, you simply would not have the time for it. Officers in the Primary Reserve serve part-time and pursue their civilian careers as their principal vocation and source of income.
>How much freedom do you have in the fields?
That will depend on the unit and what you area doing. Most often when you are training with the unit, platoons commanders have limited freedom of action because they are an integral component of the company. Occasionally you may be sent on a short task or mission that places you in a position of independent command of your troops, but these will be a fairly rare occurrence except for repetitive patrol type tasks. You won’t be ‘launched into battle’ on your own without guidance or direction to fight your own personal war (in peacetime training or on operations).
>Can you travel/"fight" with your troops as a higher-ranking officer(not that i‘m all that gung ho and all but I do think that leaders should share the pains and happiness of every good soldier like the officers in the Israeli army does).
When you receive command appointments (platoon, company, battalion) you will share hardships and challenges with your troops. There are, of course, limitations in the application of this. A battalion commander cannot exercise the same degree of control over his battalion if he’s slogging with the lead section as he can when he remains with his tactical (forward deployed) headquarters and it’s integral communications and command assets. Even a platoon commander must take care how readily he “shares†the load – you may think it’s cool and proper to help carry platoon equipment and do everything the soldiers do, but at the end of the day it is the platoon commander, not the rifleman, that must have retained sufficient energy and mental agility to make life and death decisions in crisis situations. The best NCOs will often be found protecting young officers from their own eagerness to appear to be “doing their share†to ensure they have a relatively rested and ready commander when they need him.
